India and Philippines signed a Trade Agreement in 1979. Bilateral trade was slow between the two countries till the late nineties and then posted a positive growth after the deepening relations between India and ASEAN in the context of India’s ‘Look East Policy’’. The Agreement on Trade in Goods which was signed on 13 August 2009 between India and ASEAN; and was fully implemented in 2011, helped in increase in bilateral trade. India is part of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Negotiations (RCEP) which will also support and contribute to economic integration. Bilateral trade presently stands at US $ 1.981bln (Exports from India-USD 1.487 bln, India’s imports USD 494 mln) [Source: MOC for CFY 2016-17]. Existing full potential has not been realized and there is need to further facilitate trade between the two countries especially since both economies are growing and are complementary to each other

4. India and Philippines signed an Agreement on Avoidance of Double Taxation and Prevention of Fiscal Evasion in 1990, and an Agreement for Promotion and Protection of Investments (BIPPA) in 2000, which is now being revised. (Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (BIPPA) signed between the two countries on 28 January 2000 which had an initial tenure of 10 years and came into force on 29 January 2001 expired on 28 January 2011 in accordance with Article 14 of the said Agreement. The Government of India has now proposed to terminate the Agreement and has proposed instead to enter into a new Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT) based on the Model text for the Indian Bilateral Investment Treaty). Indian investment in the Philippines is mainly in the areas of textiles, garments, IT&ITes, steel, Airports, chemicals, Automobiles and pharmaceuticals. Some of the major Indian investments in Philippines are the Aditya Birla Group in textiles & Chemicals ( Indo Phil Group), Ispat Group in Steel. A recent major entrant has been the GMR group Ltd, who in collaboration with Megawide, won the bid in April 2014 for upgrading and running the Cebu-Mactan airport project for the next 25 years and have commenced operations in November 2014. Tata Motors and Mahindra have made their presence felt in the Automobile sector.

5. Collaboration in the BPO sector has grown exponentially in the last few years. Several Indian IT companies have already set up BPO operations in the Philippines and these include companies like WIPRO, TCS, L&T Infotech, Innodata, IL&FSGenpact, Infosys, HIGS (Hindujas), Tech Mahindra etc. This close partnership in IT & BPO has become a win-win situation for both countries.

6. Similarly we have a strong presence in Pharma (Generics) where Pharma majors like Dabur Pharma, Lupin, Torrent, Zydus Cadilla, Claris Life sciences have set up liaison office to promote their products. Lupin has also acquired a stake in a local company.

7. Estimated Indian investments in the Philippines are valued at more than US $ 650 mln. During the last few years, Indian companies have successfully executed some small and medium sized projects in the Philippines. Kalpataru and Kamani Engineering Corporation are presently engaged in executing transmission line projects in the Mindanao regions of the Philippines. Other engineering firms have been repairing and setting up sugar plants for Philippine companies.

10. JWG: The India-Philippine Joint Working Group (JWG) on Trade and Investment has been meeting fairly regularly under the joint Chairmanship of our Commerce Secretary and Philippines Undersecretary for Trade and Industry. The 12th Joint Working Group on Trade and Investments was held in New Delhi on 31 March 2016. Both sides noted with satisfaction that the bilateral trade has been increasing on a sustained basis but acknowledged that there was more scope.

11. JBC: The India-Philippine Joint Business Council (JBC) was set up in 1994 and it has met seven times starting in 1995. The nodal agencies are the Philippine-India Business Council under PCCI on the Philippine side and the FICCI on the Indian side. FICCI led a delegation of 12 businessmen to Manila from March 3-6, 2014. The delegation met the Secretary of Trade & Industry, various local chambers of commerce and businessmen during their visit.

13. 50 Indian companies under the aegis of ASSOCHAM participated in the Asia Food Expo Manila from 9-12 September 2015. A 12 member delegation from AICCI, Tuticorin visited Philippines on an exploratory visit in November 2015. Earlier in March 2015, a 26 member delegation from Pharmexcil had visited Philippines and held a successful BSM. A 12 member delegation from Plexconcil visited Manila for BSM from Feb 8-10, 2016 followed by a ten member delegation from CAPEXIL from 22-24 September 2016. Similarly a five member delegation from Soya Bean Processors Association visited from 22-23, 2016. About forty companies led by ASSOCHAM again participated in AFEX food fair ‘from September 7-10, 2016 followed by a ten member delegation from FIEO for Manila Fame Lifestyle Exhibition from October 20-22, 2016. Similarly Philippine firms have been participating in Indian trade exhibitions especially in the Pharma/ IT/Automobile and Handicrafts sector. IT Business Process Association of the Philippines (IBPAP) recently sent the largest foreign business delegation to the 25th edition of the NASSCOM India Leadership Forum held in /Mumbai from 19-20th Feb, 2017. Federation of Gujarat Industries (FGI) Buyer Seller Meet, organized in Manila on 20th February, 2017 successfully. ASSOCHAM once again led a delegation of 48 Indian companies to participate in the Asia Food Expo Manila from 13-16 September 2017.

V) Tourism

14) India offers e-Tourist visa to Filipino nationals. However, Indian nationals do need a visa to come to Philippines. The flow of tourism is not much and is hampered by lack of direct flights. Presently the overall tourism figures total about 76,000.